publications

Send us a link

Subscribe to our newsletter

Can Paid Reviews Promote Scientific Quality and Offer Novel Career Perspectives for Young Scientists?

Can Paid Reviews Promote Scientific Quality and Offer Novel Career Perspectives for Young Scientists?

Community driven paid reviews could work in conjunction with a feed-back loop to young scientists. This promote the integration of reviews into an academic career.

10 Simple Rules for Developing Public Biological Databases

10 Simple Rules for Developing Public Biological Databases

If you are considering developing a new database, please, for the love of science, follow these 10 simple rules for creating and maintaining (biological) databases.

TrialsTracker

A tool was produced that identifies all completed trials from clinicaltrials.gov, searches for results in the clinicaltrials.gov registry and on PubMed, and presents summary statistics for each sponsor online. Since Jan 2006, trial sponsors included in our dataset have completed 25,927 eligible trials, of which 11,714 (45.2%) have failed to make results available.

Two-stage Calls - A real improvement in times of low success rates?

Two-stage Calls - A real improvement in times of low success rates?

The relatively low success rates for applicants in most parts of Horizon 2020 have been heavily and unanimously criticized by the stakeholders. In response, the European Commission introduced more generally a proposal evaluation in two stages, in order to ease the burden of unsuccessful applicants during the first stage. This approach received a very positive feedback from the scientific communities.

Evaluating the Non-academic Impact of Academic Research

Evaluating the Non-academic Impact of Academic Research

Evaluation of academic research plays a significant role in government efforts to steer public universities. The scope of such evaluation is now being extended to include the ‘relevance’ or ‘impact’ of academic research outside the academy. We address how evaluation of non-academic research impact can promote more such impact without undermining academic freedom and research excellence.

Peer-Review 'Heroes' Do Lion's Share of the Work

Peer-Review 'Heroes' Do Lion's Share of the Work

20% of the scientists undertook between 69% and 94% of reviews last year.

Single-blind vs Double-blind Peer Review in the Setting of Author Prestige

Single-blind vs Double-blind Peer Review in the Setting of Author Prestige

This study investigates whether bias with single-blind review is greatest in a setting of author or institutional prestige.

Bibliometric Study of FWF Austrian Science Fund 2001-2010/11

Bibliometric Study of FWF Austrian Science Fund 2001-2010/11

The scientific output supported by the FWF Austrian Science Fund is analyzed on the basis of journal publications, its distribution over fields of science, and scientific cooperation, covered by the Web of Science (WoS).

Twitter Predicts Citation Rates of Ecological Research

Twitter Predicts Citation Rates of Ecological Research

Twitter activity is a more important predictor of citation rates than 5-year journal impact factor. Moreover, Twitter activity is not driven by journal impact factor; the ‘highest-impact’ journals were not necessarily the most discussed online.

The Global Burden of Journal Peer Review in the Biomedical Literature: Strong Imbalance in the Collective Enterprise

The Global Burden of Journal Peer Review in the Biomedical Literature: Strong Imbalance in the Collective Enterprise

Mathematical model estimating the overall quantitative annual demand for peer review and the supply in biomedical research.

The Academic, Economic and Societal Impacts of Open Access

The Academic, Economic and Societal Impacts of Open Access

While deceptive publishing remains an ongoing issue, particularly in the developing world, increasing public engagement, development of OA policies, and discussion of sustainable and ethical publishing practices can remove this potential threat.

Current Incentives for Scientists Lead to Underpowered Studies with Erroneous Conclusions

Current Incentives for Scientists Lead to Underpowered Studies with Erroneous Conclusions

Researchers acting to maximise their fitness should spend most of their effort seeking novel results and conduct small studies that have only 10%–40% statistical power. As a result, half of the studies they publish will report erroneous conclusions. Current incentive structures are in conflict with maximising the scientific value of research; we suggest ways that the scientific ecosystem could be improved.

Differences in Collaboration Patterns across Discipline, Career Stage, and Gender

Differences in Collaboration Patterns across Discipline, Career Stage, and Gender

An empirical analysis of researchers’ publications reveals that females have fewer distinct coauthors yet have a lower chance of repeating previous coauthors than their male counterparts.

The Politics of Evidence

The Politics of Evidence

A new book provides new insights into the nature of political bias with regards to evidence and critically considers what an ‘improved’ use of evidence would look like from a policymaking perspective.

Quantitative Evaluation of Gender Bias in Astronomical Publications from Citation Counts

Quantitative Evaluation of Gender Bias in Astronomical Publications from Citation Counts

The increase of the fraction of papers authored by women is slowest in the most prestigious journals.

Maximizing the Local Economic Impact of Federal R&D

Maximizing the Local Economic Impact of Federal R&D

Federally funded research and development (R&D) is a hallmark of the U.S. economy but, it's under siege. To maximize and make apparent the economic returns from R&D, the next administration should seek to improve the local economic impact of federal R&D.

COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers

COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers

COPE has produced some guidelines which set out the basic principles and standards to which all peer reviewers should adhere during the peer-review process in research publication. The aim has been to make them generic so that they can be applied across disciplines.

The Effect of Gender in the Publication Patterns in Mathematics

The Effect of Gender in the Publication Patterns in Mathematics

Significant differences between genders which may put women at a disadvantage when pursuing an academic career in mathematics.